


Desert Rose

by Shadowmatic



Series: I Dreamt of Rain [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: (This is a point of canon divergence before the events of the fic), (kinda), (mostly), Additional Characters to be added, Additional Tags to Be Added, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Asexual Cody, Asexual Obi-Wan Kenobi, Asexual Rex, Canon? What Canon?, Clone Culture & Tradition, Fix-It, Force Shenanigans, Found Family, Good Xanatos, Jedi Culture & Tradition, Multi, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Not Safe for Qui Gon fans, Not evil! Xanatos, References to the Jedi Council (Star Wars), Tahl lives, The Clone Wars - Freeform, The Force, Time Travel Fix-It, Trans Anakin Skywalker, Trans Obi-Wan Kenobi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:34:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 17,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23350282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowmatic/pseuds/Shadowmatic
Summary: In which Obi-Wan Kenobi wakes up very much not dead and about twenty years in the past. Armed with the knowledge of a possible future and very, very, very angry, he sets out to make sure that he doesn’t loose everybody he cares about a second time.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, CC-2224 | Cody/CT-7567 | Rex, CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi, CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi/CT-7567 | Rex, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi/CT-7567 | Rex, Padmé Amidala & Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Series: I Dreamt of Rain [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1679470
Comments: 145
Kudos: 939





	1. In Which Obi-Wan Wakes Up

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Take Seven](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7092835) by [Bablefishmouse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bablefishmouse/pseuds/Bablefishmouse). 
  * Inspired by [Restricted Work] by [flamethrower](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flamethrower/pseuds/flamethrower). Log in to view. 
  * Inspired by [You Shall Become (Me)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6113875) by [jedipati](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jedipati/pseuds/jedipati). 
  * Inspired by [Ventress' Family](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17887667) by [kitkatkaylie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitkatkaylie/pseuds/kitkatkaylie). 



Obi-Wan braced himself for the strike. He was so tired. So very tired. He stared down the black suited monstrosity that claimed to be his dearest friend, and closed his eyes. There was the rush of the blade and then. 

Nothing. 

The silence was deafening. 

Gradually, Obi-Wan began to hear small sounds again. By all accounts, he should be dead. He didn’t feel dead. Obi-Wan wondered idly if this was what death felt like. Almost complete nothingness. 

More sensation returned. The noises became clearer. The hum of a starship. The steady beep of medical equipment. The quiet voices that sounded like they belonged to organic lifeforms for all that Obi-Wan couldn’t make out the words. 

He wondered at that. If he was captured, held by the Emperor’s forces, which was unlikely given that he wanted all of the Jedi dead, it didn’t make sense for them to have organics anywhere nearby. 

Unless he was on Force suppressors. Obi-Wan couldn’t feel anything, let alone the Force, which would have been more worrying if he could bring himself to care. 

Feeling returned to Obi-Wan’s limbs next, followed lastly by the Force. Obi-Wan couldn’t help the panic that welled up inside of him as he was bombarded by hundreds of Force signatures that he hadn’t felt in years. He could feel Jedi who had been dead for a long time, Jedi he didn’t really recognize, Jedi that should still be alive. Anakin. 

Fear and joy swamped him, and he started to weep. The closest of those signatures was Mace, who was supposed to be dead. 

“Obi-Wan?” Mace laid a careful hand on Obi-Wan’s even as he tightened his shields, which Obi-Wan could now tell were the only thing protecting him from the entirety of the Force, narrowing Obi-Wan’s perception so that he could only feel Mace. 

Obi-Wan struggled to open his eyes even as his tears petered down to a more manageable level. There were other voices, but Obi-Wan couldn’t make them out. 

Finally he got his eyes open to find Mace and Barker, the 212th Head Medic, looking down at him in concern. Both of them looked as they had early in the war. Mace’s face wasn’t as lined as Obi-Wan remembered, and Barker was missing his signature face tattoos. 

Obi-Wan tried to speak, tried to ask what in all hells was going on, only to find that his voice wouldn’t cooperate. 

“What happened?” Obi-Wan signed awkwardly, his fingers clumsy, and Barker frowned at him. 

“I didn’t know that you knew sign sir.” He said. Obi-Wan frowned. None of this made any sense at all.

“What did he say?” Mace asked. 

“What happened?” Barker relayed, moving Obi-Wan’s bed so that he was a bit more upright. He could tell now that he was in the med bay on the Negotiator, which explained somethings, but not others. Obi-Wan signalled his thanks. 

“You collapsed not too long after sending vital information to Shaak.” Mace said. “It’s been two ten-days, and you are extremely lucky I was close. I could practically taste the shatterpoint on you.” Obi-Wan cracked a small smile, even as he worried about the implications of that. Mace wasn’t lying, or he at least believed he was telling the truth. “We managed to win the campaign, and the added reinforcements were definitely to the troops’ benefit.” 

Mace fell silent and Obi-Wan tried to wrap his mind around that information. The last twenty years, the end of the war, the fall of the Republic, the rise of the Empire, it all hadn’t been real, but it could be. 


	2. In Which Obi-Wan Reports To The Council

It took a while for Obi-Wan to rebuild his shields, which Mace informed him he had only dropped a few hours before. That was what had summoned Mace back to his bedside, the fact that Obi-Wan suddenly projecting very hard into the Force. 

He initially tried just putting the shields that he had been using for the past twenty years into place, only to discover that they dampened the bonds that he could feel with the other Jedi so much that he couldn’t feel them again, which had rather been the point then. It was easier to let the bonds scab over and hide them from himself than to go in and release each one of them to the Force. 

It wouldn’t work now though. The minute he did that, he could feel tears welling up again. Mace, who had always been a good friend of Obi-Wan’s, didn’t ask. He knew as well as Obi-Wan did how disorienting shatterpoints were, though Obi-Wan didn’t think he had ever lived twenty years totally unaware they were a vision. 

He started to drop layers of shielding. Not the ones that kept him from falling into the Force, though he was still sheltered within Mace’s shields, but the ones that kept him from feeling the Force. 

It was hard, very hard, especially opening himself back up to Anakin, to Obi-Wan’s sibling padawans, to Ahsoka, to just being able to feel the hundreds of troops moving on the ship around him. 

Obi-Wan couldn’t help the shiver of fear that ran down his spine when Cody stepped around the curtain. He brushed against Cody’s mind, terrified of what he might feel, there was nothing but concern. Even though he pushed it quickly out of his mind, Mace still gave him a strange look. It didn’t matter. Mace had reminded him of what had happened, that he had found out about the chips now, and not later, when it was far, far too late, and of where they were. 

Obi-Wan was going to make sure that no clone ever had to deal with the chips being activated. Not Cody, not Fives. No one. 

“Sir. How are you feeling?” Cody asked, and Obi-Wan had to remind himself that this was not the Commander that he had been working with for almost four years before he shot him off a cliff. They had only been working together for a quarter of a year in Cody’s mind, and Obi-Wan would have to try to adhere to that. 

“Fine.” Cody gave him a sharp look, already onto him, and Ob-Wan smiled despite himself. “Tired, a bit sore. Truly, Commander, I’m alright.”

“You were unconscious for two ten-days and often you were delirious.” Cody said sharply. “Forgive me if I’m sceptical.”

“I had a vision.” Obi-Wan said, even though he still wasn’t really that sure whether this was real, or some sort of weird after-death thing. 

“A vision?” Cody looked slightly unimpressed, and equally like he hadn’t meant to ask. To be fair, so did Barker. Obi-Wan wondered why the medic hadn’t caused any fear, he had been there, that fateful day on Utapau, before pushing that aside to think about later. 

“Yes. The Force showed me a possible future. I apologize for scaring you.” He looked at Barker, at Mace. “All of you.”

Cody subsided slightly. Obi-Wan was sure that he had more questions. For all that the clones were taught about the Jedi, there were always new things to know, and they all always seemed eager to learn. 

“Will it happen again sir?” Barker asked, both clones still looked, and felt concerned, and it touched Obi-Wan. He hadn’t really had anyone care about his wellbeing, not really, since what had been the end of the war. He had spent a long time alone. 

“Hopefully not. At least not to that scale.” Mace answered for him. “It’s not often that anyone has a vision that lasts that long, and many Jedi never glimpse into the future. When I was newly knighted I had one that lasted for two days, but even that’s rare.”

“That’s good sir.” Barker said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to deal with these test results. Sirs.” He saluted, and then tucked the datapad that told everyone that Obi-Wan was perfectly fine under his arm, and left. 

About an hour later, Obi-Wan found himself in front of the Council, still seated in his bed in the med bay, Mace sitting next to him. 

“Awake you are, good to see it is.” Yoda said, as the call connected. “Vision it was, hm?”

“Yes Master Yoda.” Obi-Wan wasn’t sure what he was going to say. He had tried to think of something that he could distill the last twenty years of his life into, and the only things that he could think of were lonely and hellish, neither of which were helpful.

“Are you doing okay?” Plo asked, leaning forward in his chair. They were projecting the Council chambers into the med bay, and some of the Council members were clipping through the curtains. 

“I’m.” Obi-Wan paused. “I am a little shaken, some of the things I saw were disturbing to say the least.”

“Was it incoherent?” Mace asked. 

“No.” Obi-Wan folded his hands together in front of him. “It was very linear. It feels to me as though I just lived the next twenty years of my life following one of the pathways that the future might take.”

“Bad, it was?” Yaddle asked. All of the Council members looked concerned. 

“Yes. Very.” Obi-Wan wasn’t sure how much he could tell them. The Force was warning him to keep it to a minimum in case he fucked something up, and given who the Sith Lord was, that made a lot of sense. 

“How much can you tell us?” Saesee asked. He looked incredibly intent upon Obi-Wan’s answers. 

“Not much.” Obi-Wan said. “There is a lot of warning in the Force about say too much.”

“How long did the war last?” 

“Not twenty years.” 

They went back and forth like that for a while, different Masters asking Obi-Wan questions until Barker bustled back into the med bay, brushing aside the curtains. He saluted the Council, some of whom were regarding him in shock. It wasn’t often that someone just waltzed in to a Council meeting. 

“With all due respect sirs,” Barker said, “General Kenobi needs some rest, and some food, and you have interrogated him for quite long enough.”

“Right you are young man.” Yoda said, and Obi-Wan squashed down a smile. He was glad that Yoda thought of the clones as people, even this early on. “Let your general rest we will.”


	3. In Which Obi-Wan and Cody Have A Midnight Conversation

Obi-Wan was released from the med bay only two cycles after he woke up. He could tell that nobody was pleased with that, but they couldn’t keep him there. He was fine. Mostly. 

He wasn’t sleeping well, which wasn’t anything new. Even when he was a child, he would frequently sneak out of the creche in the middle of the night to go to the gardens, scaring his peers and his crechemaster when they couldn’t find him. 

What was new was the reoccurring nightmare about trying to rescue and/or protect a humanoid that seemed to be made out of light from a different humanoid that sucked light into it like the void. It was an exhausting dream, but being in or out of the med bay wasn’t going to change anything about that. 

About four days after he had woken up, Obi-Wan woke up in the middle of the night cycle and decided to see if some exercise would help. He wandered off down the hall, boots on, and a cloak wrapped around his shoulders to disguise the fact that he was still wearing his sleep clothes. 

Obi-Wan finally stopped in front of a window and stared out into empty space. He sat and tried to clear his mind. Meditation might actually be a boon to help him think through everything he had seen, everything he knew, but peace would not come. The feeling of so many people kept drawing his attention. Even if they hadn’t been people that he knew and cared about, it still would have felt equally as overwhelming. He had spent years in the desert, away from towns, where there were never groups of sentient lifeforms as large as the one he was in the middle of. 

“Sir.” Obi-Wan was so distracted that Cody managed to sneak up on him, and he jumped. 

“Ah, Commander.” He looked up. Cody looked as rumpled and sleep mused as Obi-Wan himself did, only in his blacks and his boots. He patted the ground next to him. “Come join me.”

Cody did as he asked, and sat down next to Obi-Wan, awkwardly folding his legs into a position similar to what Obi-Wan was doing. 

“Is something bothering you?” Obi-Wan asked, after several minutes of silence in which Cody continually snuck glances at Obi-Wan in the glass. 

“No sir.” Cody said. 

“Please, call me Obi-Wan.” Even that felt odd on his tongue, a name that he had not been called in a long time. 

“Sir?” Cody’s brow creased, and Obi-Wan smiled. 

“We aren’t in a situation of command.” He said. “And I would rather you call me by my name Commander.” Cody muffled a quick laugh. 

“I will try s- Obi-Wan.” Cody said. “But if I’m going to call you by your first name, then you should really call me by mine.”

“Of course Cody.” Obi-Wan resisted the urge to reach over and touch him, as he might have been allowed to do when they had been working together for longer. 

“If I may,” Cody started, and then hesitated. “Permission to speak freely?”

“Permission granted.” The Obi-Wan of the beginning of the war may have found the question odd, and the Obi-Wan of now was going to work on breaking the habit. He was a General, but he still hated the military structure. 

“When I found you, I saw the files that you were sending to General Ti, and.” Cody closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. “Could we really be turned against you so easily and quickly?”

“Yes.” Obi-Wan wasn’t going to beat around the bush. 

“Did that happen in your vision?”

“Yes.” Obi-Wan said, and he could hear the echo of the words ‘good soldiers follow orders’ in his ears. 

“Is there a way to make sure that doesn’t ever happen?” Cody sounded and felt angry. 

“Shaak is working on devising a safe way to remove the chips from you and your brothers right now.” Obi-Wan said. “I have spoken to her on the matter, and she agrees with us that it is of the utmost importance.”

“Us?” 

“I agree with you. This should never have happened, this should never happen. Mace has been briefed on the matter, as has Plo, and they also agree. It is being kept as secret as possible right now, as it would be unwise to reveal that we have this information before it is time.”

“Right. Thank you.” Obi-Wan couldn’t resist it anymore, and he reached over and gently laid his hand on top of Cody’s. Cody flinched, but he didn’t move away. 

“You and your brothers are worth just as much as anyone else.” Obi-Wan said.

They sat there for a long time, staring out the window, not moving. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 of Rose Gardens corresponds with this chapter.


	4. In Which the 212th Return to Coruscant

The return trip to Coruscant was relatively uneventful. Obi-Wan spent that time trying to figure out what he was going to say to the Council, how he was going to face the Jedi Temple just generally, and reassuring his men that he was okay.

They all seemed so happy to see him up and their sheer joy was enough to help Obi-Wan feel better. It was going to be okay, he could do this, he could make sure that they were okay. 

He resolved to spend more time around his men. He hadn’t spent a lot of time around them, and still they were so happy that he was okay, so he figured that he had been doing something right. 

He made a comment to that effect to Cody on night cycle, when they found themselves sitting once again in front of that window, staring out at the stars flashing by. They had never spent this much time alone and safe before, and it was a little odd, but Obi-Wan liked it. Cody gave him a strange look.

“You remember our names.” He said. “And you never act like you’re above us. You’re a better commanding officer than many of us have ever had.” Obi-Wan, despite his years of extra experience being friends with Cody, was still shocked by the comment. 

“I have very little experience being anyone’s commanding officer,” Obi-Wan said slowly. “So I am glad you think so.” He was less glad that being shown even the smallest bit of care was enough to get the clones loyal to him. That spoke badly about their previous commanding officers. 

“You’re doing fine.” This time it was Cody who reached over, squeezing Obi-Wan’s shoulder gently before moving his hand away again. 

Obi-Wan was sure that he would be able to face the Temple. It wasn’t the same Temple that housed the remnants of a massacre, it would be fine. Cody was coming with him anyways, as the Council also wanted to speak with him.

He was wrong. 

By the time they were standing in the entrance hall, Obi-Wan felt like he was choking on the darkness of his memories. He had to stop and get ahold of himself, staring across the hall, which was bustling with life. There were screams echoing in his ears. 

“You okay sir?” Cody asked, and Obi-Wan nodded, pressing onwards. Thankfully, the darkness got lighter as they went up the Temple, away from the creches. Obi-Wan wasn’t sure why it felt so oppressive. It was just a memory. The lightness of the Temple should have been enough to overwhelm it. The lightness of his men had been. 

Obi-Wan anchored himself on Cody as they traveled in the elevator, getting closer to the top. No one joined them. 

The Council meeting was, as they always seemed to be whenever Obi-Wan was brought in on one, very long and drawn out. They wanted Cody to recall every bit of information that he could before they even turned to Obi-Wan. 

“And why did you think that it was appropriate to contact Master Windu instead of calling the Council?” Oppo Rancisis, someone Obi-Wan knew was opposed to the involvement of the Jedi in war, and of the use of clones at all, asked. 

“I was doing it on the orders of General Kenobi.” Cody said, which was true. “He told us that if he were to end up out of combat for any reason that we were to contact General Windu.”

“Who is we?” Oppo sneered. Obi-Wan knew that he didn’t think that the clones were people, but he was being quite obvious about it. 

“Myself and Admiral Darklighter sir.” 

“Mace consulted the Council before taking his action.” Plo said, staring Oppo down. “Had Commander Cody contacted us, something that he is unable to do, as the channels for the Council are only Force operated, we would have come to the same decision.”

“Answered enough questions Commander Cody has.” Yoda broke in. “Speak now, Obi-Wan will.”

Obi-Wan had been expecting this, preparing for it, but he still didn’t feel ready. 

“Masters, little of what I experienced is of importance to the Council. The vision spanned twenty years as though I was living them, and much of that time was spent on a backwater planet. In hiding. The only thing that I can safely tell you is that darkness is coming, and we must work to combat it.”

“The Sith Master.” Mace said, and Obi-Wan nodded slowly. He didn’t see fit to mention that Maul wasn’t actually dead. “Lovely.”

“There’s nothing else you can tell us?” Saesee asked. He was still being combative, though less so. Obi-Wan suspected that Mace had spoken to him. 

“Since the vision finished I have been having dreams of beings of darkness and light locked in a combat of sorts.”

“I have also been having similar dreams.” Mace agreed. “Kenobi has had correct predictions before, both through shatterpoints, you remember when he was a youngling, the vision of falling and red sabres, which spoke to the Invasion of Naboo. I suggest we believe him now.”

“Discuss this we will. Talk to us again, you may have to. Dismissed you are.” Yoda waved a gnarled hand them.

They stood in the antechamber for a long moment, listening to the raised voices behind them.

“Are they always like that sir?” Cody asked eventually, and Obi-Wan laughed. 

“In my experience, yes, they are.” 

“Permission to speak freely?” Cody asked, as they stepped into the elevator once again. 

“Go ahead.”

“Why does General Yoda speak like that?”

“He’s almost nine hundred years old.” 

“Holy shit.” Cody whispered, so quietly that if he was wearing his helmet, Obi-Wan suspected he wouldn’t have been able to hear it.

“Quite.” Obi-Wan agreed. 

“Sorry.” Cody flushed, looking at his feet.

“It’s alright.” Obi-Wan said. “We aren’t in a command situation. You are officially on leave, and once we get off this elevator you are free to do whatever you wish.”

“What about you?”

“Pardon?”

“Are you on leave?” Cody felt nervous, which was odd. 

“Yes. However, I have been instructed to go to the Healing Wing, so not really.” Cody laughed. 

“Good luck with that.” He paused. “Obi-Wan.” 

“Thank you Cody.” They stepped out of the elevator, back into the entrance hall, and Cody smiled at him before turning and walking towards the doors. Obi-Wan couldn’t help the small smile as he watched him go. He was glad that their friendship seemed to be growing faster than it had before. He had always liked Cody. 

“Obi-Wan!” A familiar voice shouted, and Obi-Wan froze. He turned to find Anakin power walking towards him, grin firmly affixed to his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m really glad that people seem to be enjoying this :):):) I’m enjoying writing it.


	5. In Which Anakin and Obi-Wan Reunite

The screams had returned. There was nothing Obi-Wan could do except wait as Anakin came towards him, totally unaware that anything was wrong. 

“Obi-Wan, you’ll never guess-“ Anakin reached towards him in the Force, and Obi-Wan’s knees gave out from under him. He couldn’t feel any of the darkness that he had been bracing for. Anakin blazed in the Force as he had before it had all been snuffed out. “Hey. Woah. Obi-Wan?” Anakin caught him, and for all that Obi-Wan still wanted to move away from him, he was still shaking. 

Obi-Wan got his legs back under him, Anakin still holding on to him. 

“I’m okay.” Obi-Wan said. He didn’t know what he was supposed to say to Anakin. This Anakin hadn’t fallen yet, hadn’t touched darkness anymore than most other Jedi. 

“You just almost collapsed.” Anakin said. “I’m taking you to the Healing Wing.” Obi-Wan would have gone of his own volition, but having Anakin drag him there was not something that he wanted. 

“I’m okay.” Obi-Wan repeated. 

“Obviously not.” Anakin steered him back into an elevator. They travelled in silence for a while, Obi-Wan still very unsure about what he was supposed to do in this situation. It was easier to forgive Cody and his men, they hadn’t had any choice in matter. Anakin on the other hand. 

“What was it you wanted to tell me?” He asked eventually, when the silence had become too much.

“Hyperspace travel is a really good time to crochet.” He said, shooting Obi-Wan a concerned look. “I managed to make six more stuffed creatures for the younglings on my last trip, even if I got some strange looks from Rex.” Anakin continued to ramble, telling Obi-Wan as many stories as he could think of from the creches. 

They stepped into the Healing Wing, and immediately Healer Vokara Che appeared. 

“You were supposed to come right to me.” She snapped, taking Obi-Wan’s elbow from Anakin and bustling him down the hall. “Not take a detour to find Knight Skywalker.”

“Is he okay? He almost collapsed downstairs.” Anakin said. 

“Physically he should be fine. Your medic, Barker, was very through.” Vokara started to set up her medical equipment. Obi-Wan knew very little about the healing of Force wounds, which was definitely what she would be looking for. “This vision business however, is unprecedented.” 

“It was not my intention,” Obi-Wan started, and Vokara softened. 

“I am aware that you don’t have control over this. Now if you could take off your outer robes.” Obi-Wan did as she asked, and she swabbed a spot on his arm. “I have to give you an injection.”

“Of course.” Anakin, who had always been scared of needles, squeezed his hand tightly as she prepped the needle.

That was the last thing that he remembered for a while. 

Obi-Wan came back around to the sound of raised voices. Someone was angry, and that wasn’t good. It wasn’t good at all. He tried to get away, curling in on himself, but it didn’t work, it was everywhere.

“Anakin. Please calm down.”

“Calm down?” The anger was mounting. “Obi-Wan is hurt and you want me to calm down?”

“I want you to calm down before you hurt him more.” 

“How would his anger hurt him?” This voice was different from the other two, but none of them should have been there. Vokara was dead, and. He didn’t even want to think about the other two. 

“Whatever happened, whatever he saw, was-“

“It’s Obi-Wan.” Anakin, not Anakin, it couldn’t be Anakin, snapped. “My anger has never hurt him before.” Obi-Wan couldn’t help the small whimper that escaped him. Silence fell, and the anger dropped away entirely, leaving only fear and concern in its place.

“Obi-Wan.” There was a gentle hand on his shoulder, and Obi-Wan managed to crack his eyes open, if only to make sure he wasn’t seeing things too. Vokara Che looked down at him in concern, Cody hovering, still in his soft shell uniform, just behind her. 

Obi-Wan remembered what was happening now. It had been a vision, or something like that, he was in the Healing Wing. Anakin was still Light. 

“Can you tell me where you are?” Vokara asked. 

“The Jedi Temple.” Obi-Wan said, forcing his voice above a whisper. “The Healing Wing.”

“And can you tell me what happened?”

“You gave me, whatever it was you needed to give me.” Obi-Wan knew how to set bones and other physical injuries out of necessity, but he couldn’t even pretend to know what to do for Force injuries. “And then I passed out again?” 

“Yes.” 

“I’m getting pretty tired of passing out on people.” Obi-Wan said, and Cody cracked a smile.

“So am I sir.” He said. Obi-Wan rolled back over and sat up slowly. Anakin reached over and made to take Obi-Wan’s hand. He didn’t mean to flinch. It happened anyways. 

“Did. Did something happen to me, in your vision?” Anakin asked, drawing his hand away and setting it in his lap.

“You died.” I killed you, he didn’t say. “It was my fault.” His voice had dropped back down to a whisper. 

“Shit Obi, no wonder you looked scared.” Anakin looked like he wanted to hug him, and Obi-Wan relented, opening his arms. Anakin flung himself at him, carefully wrapping him up in his arms. “And I bet you at least twenty credits that it wasn’t remotely your fault.”

Obi-Wan didn’t know how to respond to that. He didn’t know how to respond to any of this. Instead, he just leaned into Anakin, trying to absorb his warmth. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 of Rose Gardens corresponds with this chapter.


	6. In Which Obi-Wan Has A Dream

When Obi-Wan was finally released from the clutches of Vokara Che, both Anakin and Cody were nowhere to be seen. Part of Obi-Wan wished that they were still there, and another part was glad that they were gone. 

Left to his own devices, Obi-Wan headed back to his quarters, not that he had anywhere else to go. Vokara had insisted that he stay in the Temple until their next assignment, if only because he kept passing out without warning. He mulled over Vokara’s parting words as he walked. The fact that she thought that he had a stronger presence in the Force than even Anakin surprised him. He hadn’t felt as though he was getting more powerful over the past twenty years, if anything, it had felt the opposite. 

He keyed the door to his quarters open, relieved to find that Anakin wasn’t there, and sat down on the couch. He was still so very tired. He was just going to rest for a minute and then get up and make a cup of tea. 

Instead, he fell asleep.

This time, the dream had changed. Obi-Wan knelt before the figures in an empty and echoing room.

“Are you sure we have chosen the right one?” The dark figure asked. 

“He is the only choice.” The light figure said. “You know this. He is the only one who knows the true duality of life. He is the only one strong enough to do what needs to be done.”

“He couldn’t kill Skywalker.”

“He shouldn’t have had to kill Skywalker.”

“True. He is the only true Sith anyways.” 

“Duality.” The light figure agreed. 

Both of the figures turned towards Obi-Wan. He had no idea what they meant by what they had said. 

“You are Force Chosen Obi-Wan Kenobi.” They said in unison, their voices vibrating through Obi-Wan and echoing around the space. “It falls on you to change the course of this war.”

“A trend towards peace would be best.” The dark figure said. “But you should use the gifts that we have given you as you see fit.”

“Wreck Sidious’s shit.” The light figure suggested, and though Obi-Wan couldn’t see it, he could feel the grin. His vision started to fade to black. 

“Obi-Wan?” Anakin’s voice broke into his mind, and Obi-Wan opened his eyes, squinting up at him. “How long have you been here?”

“What time is it?” Anakin told him. “Ah. I must have slept for some time then.” 

“Have you eaten anything today?”

“Yes Anakin. I ate earlier, before we landed.”

“Right. I’m going to call down to the caf and have them send something up, because I don’t think you should be cooking right now.” Obi-Wan nodded absently, getting up and going over to his desk. He needed to make record of the dream before it faded from his memory. 

Picking up a datapad, Obi-Wan started to make notes in quick short hand. Anakin could be heard calling down to the caf and otherwise making noise, but Obi-Wan paid him little mind. 

What did it mean? He was sure that it was a true dream. But the talk of duality, of being a true Sith? Were there different types of Sith? Obi-Wan hadn’t thought so but it had been many years since he had last taken a Force Religions class. 

“Obi-Wan?” Anakin called and Obi-Wan jumped, looking up. Anakin had acquired food, and Obi-Wan set the datapad down and went to join him.

The next day found Obi-Wan deeply immersed in research. He had been given his next assignment, and while he did research for that, he pulled some files on the Sith Order, and the bills that allowed the GAR to exist. As he read, taking notes as he went, he hardly noticed external stimulus. It wasn’t until his datapad itself started buzzing that he noticed that his comm had gone off. 

He opened it to find messages from many of his friends. From Bail and Padmé to Bant and Garen. The most recent one however, was from Cody, to his work comm. 

_Are you still in the Healing Wing?_ Obi-Wan almost swore. He had intended to tell Cody that he was alright the night before, but it had somehow slipped his mind. Cody was still there, as was evidenced by the little bubble that meant that he was typing.

 _No. Healer Che saw fit to release me to my quarters, but I will be Temple bound until we are sent on our next mission._ Obi-Wan sent. He immediately regretted it, wondering if it seemed somehow whiny. 

_I suppose that’s better than the Healing Wing._ Cody sent. There was a pause. _Do you know where we’re being sent next?_

_I have very little information, and I am surprised we are being sent out again as soon as we are._

_How long should I tell the men we have?_

_At the least we have two ten-days._

_At the least?_

_Is that too short? I can request further time._ Obi-Wan knew that two ten-days of time planetside was often seen as short by his fellow Jedi. Obi-Wan had no idea what Cody thought of that, he had never thought to ask. 

_No. It’s not too short._ Obi-Wan wished that they were in the same room so that he could better understand what had shocked Cody.

 _I’m glad._ Obi-Wan responded, after typing out several messages trying to ask Cody what he meant.

Cody started and stopped typing several times before they left it at that. 

Obi-Wan flipped through his various other messages. He informed Bail that he would be unable to be his plus-one for a senatorial dinner as he was Temple bound. Padmé had invited him to her name day party, another thing that he would have to decline. 

The oldest unread message was from Bant, telling him off for leaving his personal comm in his quarters at the Temple, sent just after Obi-Wan had left. Bant’s most recent message was from the day before. 

_Met your Commander. He seems nice. I got your things from him, though he seemed worried that it wouldn’t get to the right place. What got you landed in the Healing Wing this time?_

_Force reasons._ Obi-Wan responded, falling back on what they had called his, significantly smaller, visions and other Force mishaps when they were younger. _I hope you didn’t scare Cody too much._

_Are you still in the Healing Wing?_

_No._ Obi-Wan had known that he was going to end up seeing a lot of Jedi who had been killed, there were so few of them left in the end, but his childhood friends were, like Anakin and unlike Anakin, going to be harder to see than most. _I’m in my quarters._

 _Great. I’ll grab Garen and Reeft on my way up._ Then she was gone. Obi-Wan blinked at the comm in confusion. He felt like he had just dropped out of a whirlwind, things moving to fast for him to keep up with them. 

Both messages from Garen and Reeft were to tell him that they had heard he was back planetside, and that they were also still at the Temple. 

Obi-Wan set his personal comm down, and after a moment’s consideration picked up his work comm. 

_Bant said you were concerned that I would not receive my things. I have. It was very kind of you to retrieve my bag for me._ There was no response from Cody, but he hadn’t really expected one. 

He turned back to his work. 

As it turned out, there were two different types of Sith. True Sith were those who had defeated another Sith in combat in order to gain the title of Darth. There were also Lesser Sith, who had been given that title, or taken that title for themself without ever having defeated another Sith in combat. 

“What the fuck?” The longer Obi-Wan read, the more confused he became. As it turned out, a lot of what he thought he knew about the Sith was wrong. The stipulation that there must only be two Sith was false, as was the idea that Sith had to be dark at all. 

It wasn’t that there were no dark Sith, there were, but the further Obi-Wan read, the more he realized that it wasn’t about Lightness over Darkness, it was about balance, duality, as the figures in his dream had said. There were even recorded incidents of Jedi and Sith working together. 

“Alright, who threw Obi-Wan through a blender?” Garen asked, and Obi-Wan looked up, running a hand through his hair. 

“I’m okay.” He said, setting his stylus down. 

“Tahl said that you had some big vision that all the Masters are talking about.” Bant said. “Forgive me if I don’t believe you.”

His friends settled in to his quarters, drawing Obi-Wan away from his desk and into conversation about light and trivial things, and Obi-Wan felt like he could cry. He felt like that a lot, and it frustrated him a little bit, but it was okay. Almost everyone that he cared about had been dead for a very long time. He was allowed to want to cry.


	7. In Which Obi-Wan Bakes Cookies

Spending time with friends helped to clear Obi-Wan’s mind. He was still very confused by the whole Sith thing, he was going to have to do more research, but he didn’t feel as foggy. 

Instead of diving back into his research after his friends left, Obi-Wan pulled a cookbook off of the shelf. He had some free time, and he was going to make some cookies for Padmé’s name-day. He would send them along with Anakin. 

As Obi-Wan was gathering ingredients, he had had to go and get some flour from the Quartermaster, his work comm buzzed. 

_Just doing my duty sir._ Cody sent in response to Obi-Wan’s last message. Obi-Wan was about to disagree with him when Cody sent him another message. _Could I arrange a meeting with you at some point sir?_

 _Of course. I’m free at any point today and tomorrow. I don’t have my schedule for the rest of the ten-days, but it is unlikely anything urgent will come up._ Obi-Wan sent. _Feel free to drop by right now if you so desire._

_Do you mind if I bring one of my brothers along?_

_Not at all._

Not half an hour later, Cody sent a message asking where in the Temple they were to meet. Obi-Wan responded with a map that would lead him up to Obi-Wan’s quarters. Well, they weren’t just Obi-Wan’s quarters, but it felt like that, given the amount of time any of the other occupants spent at the Temple. Not that Obi-Wan hadn’t been guilty of the same thing. 

There was a tap on the door about ten minutes later as Obi-Wan was putting the first tray of cookies in the oven, and giving it little thought, Obi-Wan flicked the door open with the Force. 

Cody and the brother that he brought with him, probably Rex, given the colours on his armour and his Force signature, both stopped short just inside the door, which slid shut behind them.

“Sir, what are you doing?” Cody asked, pulling his bucket off. 

“Baking cookies.” Obi-Wan shut the oven door. “Please, come in. Make yourself at home. What’s your name?” He asked Probably Rex as both of the Vode continued to hover awkwardly in the doorway. 

“Rex, sir.” Unsure as to how to make them feel more comfortable in the space, Obi-Wan returned to spooning batter onto baking trays. 

“What was it you wished to speak to me about, Cody?” He asked. 

“I have some questions about the Jedi, sir.” Cody said. Obi-Wan was pleasantly surprised when Cody moved further into the quarters, actually entering the kitchen.

“Of course.” 

“Is the Jedi Order a religious group sir?” Cody set his bucket down on the table, and Rex had finally removed his own.

“Yes.” Obi-Wan said. “We are. And there are many other groups of Force users in the galaxy who do not follow tenets that govern the Jedi Order. There are tensions even within the Order of how the Force should be followed.”

“You don’t all agree with each other?”

“In any group, there are going to be disagreements.” Obi-Wan said, pulling out another baking sheet. “”You’re welcome to sit by the way. One of the large ones that we have in the Order is on the subject of attachments versus selfless love, though I’m sure the philosophical arguments of Jedi is not going to interest you particularly.”

Rex finally moved away from the door, and Obi-Wan was sure that the quarters were a little odd from the eyes of men who were used to spartan surroundings. The shelves were overflowing with books and plants, and Anakin was constantly leaving yarn and bits of droids everywhere. Obi-Wan had long ago given up on getting after him for it. 

“I also have a question about language sir.” Obi-Wan nodded, looking up at him. “In Basic there’s more than one pronoun set.”

“There are many.” Obi-Wan knew a thing or two about pronouns. It had taken him a while to figure out exactly which ones he wanted to use. “Though, correct me if I’m wrong, but Mando’a only has one.”

“Yes sir.” Obi-Wan knew that he was right. He spoke Mando’a, but he wanted to give Cody the opportunity to show his own knowledge. “How do you tell which one you’re supposed to use?”

“Typically you ask. Most people won’t get offended. They is the most commonly used neutral pronoun, if that helps any.”

“I don’t know.” Cody said. “What are pronouns based on?”

“Gender.”

“There’s more than one?” Rex asked. “Sir.” He seemed shocked, and Obi-Wan supposed that if he didn’t know that there was more than one gender, he would be shocked too. 

“Absolutely. We don’t really have the time to talk about all of them now, but I will write up a briefing, if you’d like.”

“Yes sir.” Cody said. Obi-Wan really wanted him to stop calling him that, but he didn’t know how this Rex would react to that. The timer dinged. 

Obi-Wan opened the oven and used the Force to lift the baking tray up onto the stove top. He took the next two sheets and slid them into the oven. 

“Those smell really good sir.” Cody said. 

“If you wait for them to cool down and take your gloves off, you can have some.” Obi-Wan had made double chocolate cookies because he knew that those were Padmé’s favourite. 

Both Cody and Rex quickly removed their gloves, hooking them into their belts. On top of everything else, Obi-Wan was going to have to deal with the fact that none of the clones had civilian clothing. It had taken a long time last time to get the Quartermaster to agree to issue anything, so the sooner he got started the better. 

It didn’t take long for the cookies to cool, and both Cody and Rex looked like they had just discovered that food didn’t have to taste like the plastic that it was wrapped in when they bit into the cookies. 

“Is this what food is supposed to taste like sir?” Rex asked. 

“Not like plastic, yes.” Obi-Wan said. Cody muffled a laugh behind his hand. 

Then the door slid open and Anakin bounded into the room, immediately killing any relaxed mood that they may have been able to achieve. 

“Sir.” Both Rex and Cody came to attention, Cody putting himself in between Obi-Wan and Anakin. Obi-Wan wouldn’t have noticed it if it weren’t for the worry radiating off of the man. 

“Rex, hey. It’s Cody right?” Anakin asked, skirting around both of them and snagging a cookie off of the counter.

“Yes sir.” Cody said stiffly. 

“I’m sorry for yelling at you yesterday.” Anakin said. “It wasn’t your fault. I was just scared. Obi-Wan has a tendency for getting himself more injured than he lets on.”

“Apology accepted sir.” Cody said. “Next time, I will let you know when something like this happens.”

“I hope it doesn’t happen again.” Obi-Wan said. “Visions, especially long ones, are unpleasant.” He wasn’t sure he could live through something like that again. He wasn’t sure he could live with himself after something like that again. Especially if this all turned out to be a dream instead. A what could have been. 

“I meant if you end up in medical again sir.” Cody said, and it felt like he was being teased. 

“Oh it will happen again.” Anakin said, and he took a second cookie. 

“Anakin if you eat all of those, I will make you help me make a second batch.”

“Obi-Wan.” Anakin whined around his cookie. “I suck at cooking.”

“Then don’t eat all of the cookies.”

“Fine.”

“They aren’t for you anyways.” Obi-Wan said. He had doubled the batch, but Anakin didn’t need to know that. 

“Who are they for then?” Sometimes Obi-Wan wondered if Anakin had ever actually grown up. 

“Padmé’s name-day is this ten-days.” Obi-Wan said. “And I know you won’t remember to get her a gift, so you will have to take these to her for both of us.”

“Wait, aren’t you going? I wanted to spend time with you, I feel like I never see you.”

“Anakin, remind me where you live again.”

“Here?” Anakin wrinkled his nose in confusion. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“I am confined to the Temple for the next two ten-days.” Obi-Wan said. “You are going to see me everyday, and I suspect that by the end of it you will be tired of me.”

“Why would I get tired of you?” Anakin asked. Obi-Wan shrugged. 

“You’ve said it before.” 

“Yeah, when I was a teenager. I never think that anymore.” Anakin raised his hands as though he was interrupting himself. “Speaking of, did I tell you the crechemasters were letting me teach a robotics class?” Obi-Wan nodded, swapping out the cookies again. 

“Well, I mentioned Ahsoka right?” This time Anakin met Ahsoka in the robotics class that he was teaching to the younglings, which was very different from the last time. 

“Yes Anakin.” Obi-Wan gathered some containers, he was going to have to send some cookies with Cody and Rex, as Anakin launched into a story about how Ahsoka had managed to get her droid to stay upright, unlike many of the other younglings. Obi-Wan, Rex, and Cody all exchanged amused glances. 

Obi-Wan had managed to find some even ground to stand on regarding Anakin by the time Rex and Cody had left. Much as they weren’t the same people that they had been in Obi-Wan’s memories, Anakin wasn’t the same, and so long as Obi-Wan managed to keep him that way, everything would be fine. Everything would be fine. Everything would be fine. 

Obi-Wan just had to convince himself of that. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look, I didn’t want to figure out if there was a Star Wars equivalent for chocolate and kitchen appliances. Fight me.


	8. In Which Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka Tano Meet for the First (and Second) Time

Obi-Wan spent much of his time while Temple bound writing and doing research. When he wasn’t engaged in that, he ran himself through katas that he felt like he hadn’t touched in twenty years. 

At night, when he wasn’t swamped by nightmares of war and the empire, he had flashes of confusing visions. It made little sense. There was a Jedi he had never met trying to talk to him, and he was trying to talk back to her. It wasn’t working well. 

The night before Padmé’s name day party, Obi-Wan managed actually meditate for the first time since he had woken up from his vision, and he focused in on the woman. 

“Oh finally.” Obi-Wan found himself kneeling in the middle of a large training space, a human woman dressed in armour that Obi-Wan was pretty sure dated from the last Sith war was standing in front of him. “I’m glad one of us managed to get through to each other. I’m Master Etheree Grey, and I’ve been ordered to teach you ways of the Force that have been long forgotten.”

“I beg your pardon?” Obi-Wan asked. She motioned for him to stand, and he obeyed. “Ordered by who?”

“The Force, obviously.” She raised an eyebrow. “Now, are you ready to learn?”

“Yes Master.” Suddenly, there was a man standing next to her, and Obi-Wan’s hand went to his belt, to his sabre. 

“Be calm.” She said, waving a hand through the man’s shoulder. “He is merely an illusion. I want you to study him, and I want you to figure out how to make one of your own. You may find it helpful to start by anchoring it on a physical object before you try to move it around. Start with something, or someone that you’re familiar with.” 

Obi-Wan reached out in the Force and immediately he could feel the threads of the Force that weaved the illusion together. He furrowed his brow, following the way that they were woven together, trying to figure out if he could replicate it. 

“Do you think you have it?” Master Grey asked, and Obi-Wan nodded. “Good. Keep that in your head and try it when you wake up.” 

Obi-Wan wasn’t sure when he had fallen asleep, but the sun was just starting to rise when he woke up. He got the feeling that he had actually gotten some sleep between talking to Master Grey and waking up. 

He got up and stretched, pulling on a shirt and leaving his room. He pulled a cup out of the cupboard and reached for the Force. He was pretty sure that he knew how to pull together an illusion now, but he was going to start small. He looked around the room, and his gaze landed on the plant that Qui Gon had made him take care of throughout the entirety of his padawan years. That was certainly something he was familiar with. 

Anakin walked in not five minutes later to find Obi-Wan staring at what looked like an exact replica of that plant, a small cactus that Xanatos’ mother had bought for Qui Gon. Obi-Wan had accidentally broken the pot when he and Qui Gon were still trying to get a feel for each other, and taking care of it had been his punishment. 

“Is something wrong?” He asked. “I’m trying my best, I promise.”

“I know you are Anakin.” Obi-Wan said. It felt like a mug, but it looked like a plant, and it was fucking him up a little bit. “Nothing’s wrong.”

”Alright. I’m going to go down to the caf this morning. Ahsoka said that today was going to be a pancake day, so.”

“Of course.” Obi-Wan stood, and took the fake cactus with him, setting it down directly behind the real one before getting rid of the illusion. “Would you mind terribly if I came with you?” 

“Not at all.” Anakin seemed shocked, and Obi-Wan wondered again, a thought that had plagued him for many years, how much of Anakin’s fall was Obi-Wan’s fault. How much of it had been that he had been unable to properly express his care, and his trust? “Obi-Wan?”

“Sorry.” Obi-Wan shook himself, and moved to go put some proper clothes on. Anakin stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

“Is something wrong?” Anakin asked. Obi-Wan shook his head, but Anakin reached out with the Force, probing gently. Obi-Wan very carefully kept his shields in place. “Okay. Let me know if you want to talk about it. You should get dressed though. They might run out.”

“They’re not going to run out.” Obi-Wan said. Still, he went and changed. 

The caf was as busy as it always was on pancake day, and Obi-Wan, who enjoyed cooking much more than Anakin ever had, appreciated how much work the cooks did. 

“Anakin!” Obi-Wan had forgotten how tiny Ahsoka had been until she came barreling towards them, several other younglings following on hot on her tail. 

“Hey kiddo.” Anakin gave out hugs liberally to all of the younglings and padawans who came up to him as they crossed the caf, followed by Ahsoka and her crechemates. “Have you already gotten breakfast?”

“They have.” Obi-Wan had only met Crechemaster Orf once, but he remembered liking vis. Ve gathered up ver younglings. “I’m sure Anakin and Master Obi-Wan will be willing to come over and join us once they have gotten their own breakfast.” 

“Most certainly.” Obi-Wan said, and Anakin bowed shallowly, gently detaching Ahsoka from his waist. 

“She seems like a good kid.” Obi-Wan said as they queued up to get some breakfast. 

“Yeah.” Anakin grinned, and Obi-Wan recognized the expression from when the two of them had managed to fit together before. He was glad that they had managed to do it much sooner this time, but he had no idea what had changed. “I would take her on, but I’m not sure I’m ready for that, and beyond that, I don’t want to take a youngling into battle.” A different person might tell him that he had nothing to fear, that the Order wouldn’t do that, but he remembered the Melida/Daan. 

They collected breakfast, and Obi-Wan was glad to have the chatter of younglings wash over him as they sat. Most of them ignored him for the most part, more focused on Anakin, but eventually Ahsoka turned to him. 

“Did you really kill a Sith?” She asked, far more chipper than Obi-Wan thought the question warranted. It threw him a little bit.

“Yes. I did.”

“I betcha it was so cool, like, blam, blam, blam.” Ahsoka swung an imaginary lightsaber, and Obi-Wan was once again reminded that she was only thirteen, that she had yet to become the serious young woman that she had been when Obi-Wan had last seen her. 

“Fighting a Sith, fighting anybody is very serious business.” Crechemaster Orf said. 

“Yeah, but he’s Master Obi-Wan Kenobi.” Ahsoka said. Her crechemates chimed in with their agreement, and Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow. 

“He’s the coolest.” The Besalisk sitting next to Anakin said. Anakin nodded. 

“He is the coolest.” He agreed, smiling across the table at Obi-Wan. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone notices any typos or sentences that don’t make sense, please let me know. Also, thank you for being patient, all of the stuff that’s happening right now has left me with periods of lots of writing and then periods of none. 
> 
> I have once again not even bothered to go and check what a pancake may be called in Star Wars. It doesn’t matter, it’s not like it’s a region specific word or anything (in the sense that it seems like it came from a specific place on Earth).


	9. In Which Obi-Wan and Tahl Have a Serious Conversation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m warning y’all now (though I probably should have sooner), my grasp on canon is slim. If anybody seems OOC, that is why.

Obi-Wan escaped soon after breakfast and headed down to the Archives. He needed to distract himself from his own memories. Before he could even get as far as inputting his query into the terminal, Tahl appeared at his elbow. 

“Obi-Wan. I’m sorry to interrupt, but I was wondering if I could speak to you privately for a moment?” She said softly.

“Of course.” Obi-Wan followed Tahl over to one of the private research room. She shut the door and Obi-Wan pulled out chairs for both of them. They sat. 

“Master Yoda came to me the other day and asked if I could do some research.” She said, resting her hand on top of Obi-Wan’s. “Which is not unusual, but I thought you would want to know what I found, given that it was pertaining to you.”

“Oh?” Obi-Wan hoped that if she had figured out that he was in a dream now that she would be kind when he broke into tears. He had only been back among his people for a few days, but he knew that even now it would probably kill him to be torn away from them all again. 

“There are very few of the histories beyond what is commonly know that are both translated from the language that the Jedi of the time of the Sith wars used and uploaded to the Archives’ holonet, however, it was enough for me to find mention of another time that something like this has happened.” She squeezed Obi-Wan’s hand gently, chuckling softly. “I suspect that the moment I tell you the name, you will go rushing off to do your own research, however, before I do that, I would like to speak of personal matters for a moment.”

“Of course.” Obi-Wan was curious, but he also knew that she was right. 

“I don’t know if you’ve been told, but I was speaking to Plo the other day, and he told me that the Council has only gotten in touch with your padawan-siblings recently to recall them from their missions, and none of them have been told about Qui Gon’s death.”

“I had not been told.” Obi-Wan had tried to get in touch with them shortly after Qui-Gon had died. He had been unable to do so, and it had been over ten years since he had seen any of them. This was not going to be fun.

“Sable and Petr are supposed to have returned by the middle of the next ten-days.” Tahl said. “Feemor and Xanatos have yet to respond.” 

“I suppose I’ll be put in charge of telling them about Qui Gon.” All of Obi-Wan’s padawan-siblings had different relationships with Qui Gon, but he knew enough to know that both Feemor and Xanatos had considered leaving the Order because of him, and all of them had chosen their missions to stay as far away from the Temple as possible. 

Sable, who was the eldest of the four of them, had left so soon after she was knighted that Obi-Wan hadn’t know she existed at the beginning of his apprenticeship because she never came back while Qui Gon was on Coruscant. It had only been by chance that they had met. 

“Probably.” Tahl’s relationship with Qui Gon and his death, like everyone’s, was complicated. “I’m sorry that that has been put on you, but I think you are best fit for the job. They care about you.”

“They’re probably more worried about me than they are about him.” Talking about him was easier now than it had been. Obi-Wan was no longer bitter about what he had been put through as a child. He had had a long time to move past it, but it still hurt.

“I’ve said this before, but I will say it again, I am sorry for what he put you through. I had always thought that he was a better man than that.”

“It’s not your fault.” Obi-Wan could hardly blame Tahl for Qui Gon’s decision on how to deal with the Melida/Daan situation. 

“Still.” She sighed. “May I give you a hug Obi-Wan?” 

“Yes.” She pulled him into a careful embrace. Obi-Wan felt like he was getting a lot of hugs recently. That said, he also felt like he had just spent twenty years alone in a desert, so any hugs felt like a lot of hugs.

“Now,” she leaned back again, “I have a name for you.”

“You do.”

“Her name was Master Etheree Grey, and so far as I could tell, she has had a similar experience of twenty or so years of coherent vision taking place over a period of approximately two ten-days.”


	10. In Which Obi-Wan Does Some More Research (He Likes Books Okay, Leave Him Alone)

Obi-Wan was frustrated. It made sense that there was a lack of information given that she had lived almost four thousand years previously, but it was still frustrating. Most of the information that he had been able to find came from before the Great Sith war, at least about her. Of course, he hadn’t dug into anything too seriously yet. 

He took out several books and files out of the Archives, both translations and originals. He had already acquired a translation reference when he had started working on research about the true Sith. 

He was sitting at his desk in their quarters, staring blankly at the collection of flimsy and datapads on his desk, having spent several hours working and coming up blank, when Anakin burst through the door. Obi-Wan spun around, slightly concerned that something was on fire. 

“Can we talk?” Anakin said immediately. He looked, and felt anxious, but Obi-Wan was pretty sure nothing was literally on fire. They wouldn’t be talking if something was on fire. 

“Of course.” 

“I’m trans.” Anakin said, speaking quickly. “I want to keep my name, but I want you to use she/her pronouns for me please.”

“Of course dear one.” Obi-Wan was a little surprised, in part because he hadn’t expected it of Anakin, and in part because it hadn’t happened before. “Thank you for telling me. Is there anything I can do to help you in this?” 

“I know that the Temple has relatively comprehensive health classes, but I don’t know what the men might know, and I don’t know how to tell them.” Anakin said. 

“Very little.” Obi-Wan said, fishing his work datapad out of the piles of flimsy. “I’ve been writing up a briefing on gender, given the questions I have been asked. It is not done, but if you would like to look it over, I would welcome it.”

“So, what you’re saying is that even if I wasn’t coming out as trans, I would probably be fielding questions about my gender anyways?” Anakin joked, stepping further into their living space and taking the datapad. 

“In all likelihood.”

“What the hell are you working on by the way?” 

“Mainly just a personal project. Research.”

“Always fun.” Anakin was joking, Obi-Wan knew that she wasn’t overly fond of research, but Obi-Wan legitimately enjoyed it. 

“Yes.” He agreed seriously. Anakin laughed and flopped down onto their couch, and starting to read. 

Master Grey pushed him hard. They often spent time on Force techniques that could be used either for defensive, like the illusions, or offensive, which was frequently just working on extending Obi-Wan’s ability to use the Force for longer periods. They also worked on physical fighting techniques. 

“Your hand to hand is good.” Master Grey said. She had still managed to wipe the floor with him. “As are your sabre skills.” They had gone from fighting with sabres to fighting without in the same fight, and Obi-Wan was breathing hard. 

“Thank you Master.” He pushed himself to his feet and pulled his sabre back to him. 

“Everything we’ve worked on so far, you have taken to with ease, and I am glad that not everything is lost.” Master Grey stood in front of him, her hands folded in front of herself. “Tell me, have you acquired armour?”

“Yes.” Obi-Wan had, over the years of his vision, which he still didn’t fully believe was really not real, missed wearing armour significantly. He was sure that many of the clones felt the same when they were forced to wear their soft shell armour. 

“Good. I know we’ve done a lot this evening, but given that you are going on campaign soon, I feel that it is important to talk about armour.” The room that they were in faded away, and Obi-Wan found himself in some sort of study. “The Jedi Order has given up on the use of armour, though it is my understanding that your robes are supposed to take some of the heat.”

“Yes. The layers, and the use of different fabrics and occasionally metal helps with things like getting knifed.” Obi-Wan said. “I fear that this is not going to work as well during wartime.”

“You don’t fear it, you know it. I know as well as you do that you’ve lived this war before.”

“Yes.” Obi-Wan knew at this point that something similar had happened to her, but armour was a more immediate concern. 

“Your men wear full body armour yes?” Master Grey picked up a sheet of flimsy and handed him the specs to a set of Phase One armour. Obi-Wan nodded, handing it back. He was going to have to work hard to ensure that the HUDs weren’t changed too much in the next phase, because he knew that it had gotten some of his men killed, the lack of peripheral vision. Or at the very least he was going to have to gather helmets. 

Twenty years in the desert had, among other things, made him a bit of a hoarder, and as much as he knew what was going to happed, events had already proved to be changing very swiftly. 

“You won’t want full body armour like that, if only because I’m guessing the Order want you to still look like a Jedi. I can’t help you with sourcing fabric for new robes, but I can help you enhance your armour.”

“I’ve been trying to acquire some Durnaan silk.” Obi-Wan said. He was going to make his robes out of the toughest material he could acquire or so help him, he would wear a full set of plastoid armour even if it made him hard to pick out among his men. 

“Very good.” Master Grey grinned. “Now, what I’m about to teach you appears to have fallen out of favour with the Jedi Order. Your Jedi don’t seem to like to get their hands dirty.”

“I’ve been reading a little bit about inscriptions.” Obi-Wan said. “Is that the kind of thing we’re talking about?”

“Absolutely.” Master Grey pushed her hair out of her face and lead Obi-Wan over to a different table. There were bits of metal and cloth and tools scattered all over it. “Now, we’re going to start with the Force theory.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 5 of Rose Gardens corresponds with this chapter.


	11. In Which There is More Anger About Qui Gon

Two days before they were set to leave for Zarro, Vokara cleared Obi-Wan to leave the Temple to go and give Cody, Admiral Darklighter, and the rest of the upper echelons of the 212th command structure their briefing. 

They had already all returned to the Negotiator, stocking up for a long campaign. They were just waiting on Obi-Wan, and on the 501st. Obi-Wan didn’t really need to do a briefing, but he wanted to make sure everything made sense. 

It didn’t take him very long, there were only a few questions, and then Obi-Wan was free to go. He lingered for a few minutes, watching the last of the supplies being loaded into the belly of the ship, Cody at his side. He could hear the faint hum of one of the earliest songs that had come into being in the culture of the Vode, and it really hit him, that he was going to have to build up the trust that had been so natural by the end of the war all over again. Obi-Wan closed his eyes briefly, trying to tamp down on tears. 

“Is something the matter sir?” Cody asked after a moment. 

“No.” Obi-Wan watched for a little bit longer. As much as Cody already knew, this was a little bit too much to share. “Once we are actually underway, we will have another meeting with Anakin and the 501st.”

“Yes sir.” Obi-Wan clapped Cody on the shoulder gently and turned to go. He needed to go before he actually started crying over how much he had missed his men. “Do you know General Skywalker well sir?” Cody didn’t blurt the words out, but Obi-Wan was sure he hadn’t really meant to ask. 

“I raised her, so I would say we know each other fairly well.” He smiled at Cody, hoping to assuage his worry, and then took his leave.

Obi-Wan still hadn’t opened his bond to Anakin very far, but he could still feel her slight panic as he made his way back to to the Temple. Rather unfortunately, he was driving, and did not want to open his bond all the way, if only because he didn’t want Anakin to get any more remnants of his fear than she already had. 

Plo was waiting for Obi-Wan when he landed his speeder. 

“Sable and Petr are back. We sent them up to your quarters until we can find somewhere else to room them. Anakin was in the middle of the robotics class that he is teaching at that time, but he is done that now, so it is possible that there is conflict happening.” Plo informed him as they walked towards the elevator. 

“She.” Obi-Wan corrected absentmindedly. 

“Ah, my apologies. I will keep that in mind.”

“See that you do.” Anakin was still Obi-Wan’s in many ways, and this Anakin hadn’t fallen, and even if she had, lightness or morality had no bearing on respect of pronouns. 

“Of course.” Plo clapped Obi-Wan on the shoulder. “May the Force be with you Obi-Wan.” 

Obi-Wan had only been told through official channels that Sable and Petr were on their way back to the Temple a day before they were supposed to show up, and now they were three days late. 

Once he got to their floor, Obi-Wan powered down the corridor. He could still feel Anakin’s slight panic and confusion, but he had blocked off Sable entirely, mainly by accident, and while he had never had a particularly strong bond with Petr, he had blocked him off too.

The door slid open on a scene that Obi-Wan was almost expecting. Sable and Anakin were squared off against each other, Petr hovering behind his Master. 

“...or so help me, I will find out myself.” Sable was saying. Anakin caught Obi-Wan’s eyes, and pushed at their bond a little. Obi-Wan let her in, just enough so she could say something.

 _“She’s really mad at Qui Gon.”_ Anakin said in Obi-Wan’s mind. And then out loud: “Well, you won’t have to.” She nodded over Sable’s shoulder, and both Sable and Petr whirled around. 

“You-“ Sable started angrily, and then stopped short. “Obi-Wan?” She asked, brow creased in confusion.

“It’s good to see you Sable. Petr.” He nodded to each of them in turn, and Petr returned the nod. His dark hair was longer than Obi-Wan had ever seen it, which he supposed made sense. Many padawans had short hair, to make their padawan braid more noticeable, and a good number of Knights, Obi-Wan included, grew their hair out after their Knighting Ceremony. 

“Where’s the old man?” Sable asked. Obi-Wan winced without meaning to. He had never really talked about Qui Gon with Anakin, and he was afraid that her hero worship would flair up again in the face of people who openly reviled him. 

“He has become one with the Force.” Obi-Wan said. Sable frowned. 

“And Yan?” Obi-Wan shook his head. 

“He left the Order.” Obi-Wan knew that Yoda still held out hope for Dooku, but Obi-Wan wasn’t sure that he did.

“When did this happen?”

“Ten years ago.”

“Somebody should have fucking contacted us.” Sable said, stepping towards Obi-Wan. “When did you take Anakin on as your padawan?”

“Just after I was Knighted. Just after Qui Gon died.”

“You were just a kid.” Sable almost snarled, and Obi-Wan stepped back, just a little. She subsided. “Sorry. They just, shouldn’t have made you do that. I assume she was one of Qui Gon’s pathetic life forms.”

“They didn’t make me do anything.” Qui Gon may have wanted Obi-Wan to train Anakin, but that had actually factored very little in Obi-Wan’s decision. He had wanted to prove himself to them, and he hadn’t wanted Anakin to get hurt. He had fallen in love with the little ball of sunshine that Anakin had still managed to be despite being an orphan and a slave just as much as Qui Gon had. “Training her was my choice.”

“I’m only a Knight because the Council made a decision forced by politics and war.” Anakin put in. “I recognize that Obi-Wan still has a lot more to teach me.”

Obi-Wan couldn’t help his smile at that. He had thought that Anakin had agreed with the Council, that she was ready, but he also knew what Anakin lying felt like, and this wasn’t it. 

“Right. Good. I’m sorry for yelling at you.” Sable turned back to Anakin, still keeping Obi-Wan in her line of sight, as though he would vanish the minute she turned away. “Qui Gon never had a good track record with padawans, and with Obi-Wan specifically.”

“I kinda gathered that.” Anakin smiled slightly. “And also, now that we’ve gotten that passed us, can I have some actual introductions please?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn’t really sure what to call this chapter, so I tried my best. 
> 
> Also, I managed to write at least one chapter that parallels this one for Rose Gardens, and I’m working on a second one. 
> 
> Chapters 6, 7, and 8 of Rose Gardens correspond with this chapter and the next chapter.  
> 
> 
> Additional note: Shmi was already dead when the events of the Phantom Menace happened in this AU.


	12. In Which Obi-Wan Has a Civil Conversation With Somebody He Wishes Didn’t Exist

Obi-Wan found himself alone with Anakin once again just a few minutes later. Both Sable and Petr had other friends in the Temple who they wanted to see, but even just their bags made their quarters, built for six people, not for two, just a little bit warmer. 

“Can you,” she paused and then started again. “I have questions about Qui Gon, but Sheev wants to talk to me tomorrow, and I don’t want to talk to him, and I don’t know what to tell him.” 

“Why don’t you want to talk to him?” Inside Obi-Wan was cautiously getting hopeful. He had been hoping to find a way to get the Sith Lord, the literal Sith Lord, away from his padawan, but if Anakin didn’t want to talk to him on a more long term basis, then Obi-Wan wouldn’t have to think of an excuse. 

“I know I’ve only been out for about a ten-days, but I’ve been questioning my gender for years, and y’know, when I was teenager, he was the adult who wasn’t you that I kind of latched onto, and so I looked into his opinions on trans folk.” Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow. 

“And what does he think?” He had never considered that he might be transphobic. He had always seen the dislike, but he had assumed that it was because Palpatine just didn’t like him, in part because he was Anakin’s teacher. 

“He’s tried to stop trans rights bills so many times.” Anakin looked genuinely distressed, and Obi-Wan had to remind himself that she didn’t know that he was a Sith. “I have no idea how he got so far in politics in a place like Naboo.” 

“Oh.” Obi-Wan stroked his beard gently. “I can see why you don’t want to talk to him. When?”

“Between thirteen hundred and fourteen hundred.” She pulled her comm out, and made an even more distressed face at it. “It’s him.”

“Let me.” Obi-Wan took the comm from Anakin’s unresisting hands and took the call, making sure that she wouldn’t get caught in the shot. The image flickered to life, the Chancellor replicated in blue light. The second that he saw him, Obi-Wan wanted to take his head off, but unfortunately, that would not work out in the long run. If he was any less sane, twenty years alone in the desert could do a number on a person, he would have done it anyways. “Chancellor, if you’re looking for Anakin, I’m afraid you’ve just missed him. He forgot his comm when he went down to the caf, and I’m afraid he won’t be back for a while.”

It hurt to misgender his padawan, but he also wasn’t going to out her to him. 

“That’s unfortunate. I was hoping to meet with him tomorrow.”

“When?”

“I’ve cleared an hour between one and two in the afternoon, and it would be lovely to see him before you leave.” He smiled one of his smarmy politician smiles at Obi-Wan.

“Given that we’re about to leave, I’m sure you’re aware that both Anakin and myself are very busy. We have a briefing tomorrow at between one and three, and it can’t be moved.” Obi-Wan said apologetically. They didn’t, but Obi-Wan could schedule one. 

“Ah. Do you have any idea when you shall return from your campaign?” 

“No.” There was a projected date, but you couldn’t tempt these kinds of things. “And even if we did, you would not be privy to that information.” 

“Not even as a friends?”

“No. Everything is on a need to know basis.”

“Yes, of course. Silly me.” He was still smiling that fucking smile. “Please, tell Anakin that I called, and ask him to call me when he can.”

“Of course.” Obi-Wan managed to pull up a fake smile of his own. 

“I’m afraid I have to go. There is always paperwork to do. Best of luck with your campaign Master Jedi.”

“May the Force be with you Chancellor.” The call cut. Obi-Wan handed Anakin back her comm. 

“Thank you so much.” Anakin pulled Obi-Wan into a hug and he tried not to stiffen. 

“Of course.” Anakin let him go and then pulled a face. 

“I suppose that means that you’re going to schedule a briefing between 1300h and 1500h tomorrow, aren’t you?”

“I might as well.” Obi-Wan said. “Are you teaching any classes tomorrow?”

“At 1600h. I’m busy in the morning too.” Obi-Wan was pretty sure that was code for going on a date with Padmé, but he wasn’t going to push. 

“Of course. I will inform Commander Cody of the change in plans.”

“Right. Good idea. I’ll tell Rex.”

They had a quiet dinner that night. Anakin didn’t ask any questions about Qui Gon, which surprised Obi-Wan a little.

“Armour is a good idea.” Anakin said, as they finished, and she stepped away to the worktable, where Obi-Wan’s current project was lying. He had given up on inscribing protective runes into every bit of it, and was mainly focusing on creating the breast and back plates the way he wanted them. “How mad do you think the Quartermaster will be if I try to get some now?”

“Very. He was mad at me for trying to get the pieces I did almost two ten-days ago because it was too soon.”

“Lovely.” Anakin picked up the breastplate. “Why leather, why not just a regular breastplate?”

“It’s Quenar, which is what the Jedi used for their armour during the Great Sith war because it’s pretty lightsaber resistant. My other reasoning is that it’s more flexible.” Obi-Wan said. “We had some in the basement.” It was a light grey leather, which was good for dyeing, if Obi-Wan had dyes, which he did not. 

When the war had happened before, it had taken a while for Obi-Wan to get armour. Now he was planning on dealing with the Sith as soon as possible, and he was going to need some armour to do it. He still had yet to acquire the silk he needed, which was frustrating, but would hopefully be fine for now. 

He still had a few things to finish up on that part of the armour, but he could do that after he messaged Cody about the change of plans. 


	13. In Which Obi-Wan Has A Very Productive Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> By which I mean he doesn’t really get anything done at all.

Obi-Wan only got about an hour of sleep that night, and what little sleep he did get was tormented with nightmares of fighting Anakin on Mustafar. 

Once he realized that he wasn’t going to be getting any more sleep, he exited his sleeping quarters, and flicked on the lamp over his desk. He sat and started to sort through the stacks of flimsy. For reasons that he couldn’t quite explain, his thoughts kept drifting back to Yan Dooku and Asajj Ventress. 

“Couldn’t sleep?” Sable asked, breaking through Obi-Wan’s thoughts. 

“No.” Obi-Wan looked up at her, and Force poked him gently. 

“Reeta told me about your vision.” Master Reeta Noon was one of Sable’s former crechemates. “I can’t imagine how much that sucked.”

“You don’t know the half of it. There is however, something I would like to tell you.” Why the Force wanted him to tell her about Ventress was beyond him, but if their lineage was good at anything beyond being the worst speeder wreck the Order had seen in millennia, it was following the Force.

“I’m all ears. Especially for you Obi-Wan.” She snagged the other wheeled chair and sat down next to him. 

“Yan is currently training a Separatist assassin from Danthomir by the name of Asajj Ventress.” Obi-Wan said. “She wields twin blades, and is a very skilled foe”

“I will keep that in mind.” Sable said. “Danthomir is the planet of the Nightsisters isn’t it?”

“Yes.” 

“Great. I suppose Yan has gone to the Separatist side of things then?”

“Worse. He’s Fallen. Anakin and I had to fight a duel against him in the opening battle of this conflict.”

“So it’s our fucking lineage then. Lovely.” Sable patted Obi-Wan’s hand gently. “Is there anything I can do to help you fall asleep?”

“Meditate with me maybe?” Obi-Wan hadn’t tried meditating with another person in a long time. Most of his sleepless nights since he had had the vision had been spent running through katas. Twenty year old muscle memory could only get somebody so far. 

“Of course.”

Morning found Obi-Wan and Sable curled up together in a pile on the meditation pillows. He had managed to fall asleep fairly dreamlessly, and he had not heard a peep from Master Grey. 

“Do you want to spar?” Sable asked, as they finished clearing up the dishes from breakfast. “I know you have a little bit of time this morning.”

“Sure. Why not?” Anakin had already left for whatever meeting she had arranged. Sable grinned at him. 

“I want to see how well my little brother, the famous Sith Killer, actually holds up.” Her tone was slightly mocking and Obi-Wan groaned. 

“I don’t know how you managed to find out about that when you’ve only been here for a day.” 

The training salles were about as busy as they normally were about mid morning. There were some classes, some Knights and Masters, and a couple of Master-Padawan pairs. As the war progressed the number would become lower, and even now there were fewer than there should be. 

They took one of the rooms off of the main salles, and faced off, training sabres in hand. 

“Master Kenobi.” Sable smiled. 

“Master Dune.” Obi-Wan nodded his head in deference. Sable smiled and launched her offence. 

Fighting with Sable was slightly alien, but she used the same form Qui Gon had, so it wasn’t that different. Their blades clashed over and over again, blurs in the air. 

“We’ve got an audience.” Sable said, as Obi-Wan pushed back at her. “Want to put on a show?” Some of the people who had been in the salles had clearly gotten wind of the fact that they were sparing, and more people had shown up to watch them fight. 

“I’m sure this is already enough of a show.” Obi-Wan said, even as Sable flipped away from him.

They circled each other, and this time, Obi-Wan took the offence. He switched from Soresu into Makashi, a form he had picked up late into the Clone Wars, just to throw her off. 

He pushed forward. It was only a matter of time before one of them made a mistake, and there. Sable had left herself open to a disarming move, and Obi-Wan took the opportunity. 

Her blade flew away from them with a clatter, and Sable held up her hands in surrender. 

There was a round of applause from the people watching them, but Obi-Wan ignored them. No matter what Sable had joked, it wasn’t a performance, it was just a chance to measure his skill against another Jedi Master, something he sorely needed given that he felt like he had been transported into a body twenty years younger than what he was used to. 

“You’ve gotten better.” She said, holding out her hand for Obi-Wan’s blade. “Jinn would be mad that you’ve picked up Makashi.”

“Just because he didn’t like it doesn’t mean it’s not useful.” Obi-Wan passed it to her, and then followed her off to the side of the ring. “And it isn’t my preferred form.”

“I could tell. Soresu huh?” Obi-Wan nodded. He didn’t know what else to say. 

He saw Crechemaster Orf before he saw ver younglings, and was thus a little surprised when Ahsoka almost tumbled straight into him. He steadied her with a hand, and she beamed up at him. 

“I want to be like you when I grow up.” She said, and Sable laughed. 

“It appears Obi-Wan, that you have some admirers.” 

“It does appear that way, yes.” It only took a few minutes for people to start to clear out of the room, once they realized that no one was going to be doing any more sparing or duelling of any sort. Of that Obi-Wan was glad. He had done enough fighting for the day, especially given that they were going to be leaving later that evening. 

His thoughts turned back to Anakin and Ahsoka as the chatter of younglings filed the room. Would Yoda do what he had done last time? Would Anakin take Ahsoka on of her own accord? It was improbable to Obi-Wan that anyone other than Anakin would train her. He would fight on their collective behalf if anyone challenged that. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m trying to work on writing fight scenes, and this fic is a way to do that. Hopefully they will get better as time goes on.


	14. In Which Obi-Wan Returns to War

The thing about space, Obi-Wan mused as the Negotiator exited Coruscant’s atmosphere, was that it was a lot like a desert. A whole lot of nothing unless you went looking for it, and even the nothingness could kill you. It was beautiful though, in an austere kind of way.

The bridge was quiet but for the rumble of the engines and the gentle beeping of various devices. Obi-Wan stood with Admiral Darklighter and Cody as they followed Anakin’s flagship, the Resolute, and her fleet into hyperspace, the successful passage of each ship being spoken aloud by a member of the bridge crew, as the ships vanished from sight. 

They started to prepare for their own jump as the last of Anakin’s ships made their jumps. 

“Coordinates set for Zarro system, making the jump in five. Four. Three. Two. One.” The stars blurred outside of the viewport, and a moment later, the rhythmic hum of the hyperdrive started. Obi-Wan was very conscious of the silence. No one had yet given the Vode permission to have their own culture, and Obi-Wan missed it.

The trip was to take four cycles, or about three and a half Coruscant days. In that time, there was lots of preparation to be done. Obi-Wan tried to stay out of the way because he knew that right now he wan’t their General, he was just the General. 

Regardless, he spent most of the cycles either doing paperwork, which was just as tedious and overwhelming as Obi-Wan remembered it being, or running himself through his katas over and over again in one of the few training spaces that had the right kind of open space for it. 

The first cycle, he spent alone, fighting imaginary opponents. That night, or what passed for night in space travel, his thoughts turned towards melancholy, and he was unable to do anything except fall into a fitful sleep. 

During the second cycle, it took some time before Obi-Wan realized that anyone had joined him. He had finished with the katas for Soresu, and turning to get his blade, was startled to find Cody watching him. He had his bucket tucked under his arm, which gave Obi-Wan reason to believe that he had just come off duty. Cody had shaved his hair off at some point over the last two ten-days, and Obi-Wan couldn’t help but think that he preferred his hair a little longer, though he would never try to hamper Cody’s self expression. 

“Commander, my apologies. I didn’t realize you were there. Was there something you needed?” 

“No sir.” Cody’s slight smile was a blessing upon Obi-Wan, and he smiled back. “I just heard someone in here, and I. I will admit I was unsure as to what you were doing. Sir.”

“Ah.” Obi-Wan scooped his lightsaber up off of his robes, which he had left on one of the benches. “I was doing some exercises. You are welcome to stay if you would like.” Obi-Wan briefly pondered teaching Cody to use his lightsaber, in case it was ever necessary, before pushing it to the side to think about later.

The third cycle found Obi-Wan, with his tea and his paperwork, in the mess hall. He needed to be around people, and sitting in the mess hall, with its gentle ebb and flow of troopers moving in and out of the space, was good for that. Besides, it was one of the only spaces he was welcome in that the Vode could relax in. 

It took a while before the relaxed atmosphere returned after Obi-Wan sat himself down at a table and started to trudge through the paperwork that he had left to do, but Obi-Wan was glad that it had returned. 

He sat there for hours, his tea getting cold as he worked and meditated in turn. Eventually he reached for his mug, only to have a hot mug pushed into his hand by someone wearing the standard issue gloves that went under the gauntlets.

“Be careful sir, it’s hot.” 

“Thank you.” Obi-Wan looked up at smiled at the clone. He was pretty sure this was Pincer, though he didn’t know if he was called that yet. “What’s your name?”

“CT-3466 sir. I don’t have a name yet.” Obi-Wan frowned. 

“You’ve been here since the start haven’t you?” He asked. He must have been, to be a Captain. He had never been quite sure where the name Pincer had come from, but he was quite sure that this was him. 

“Yes sir.”

“It’s clear I don’t understand something about your naming conventions. Would you care to enlighten me?” Pincer, helmetless, nodded slowly. “You can sit if you’d like.” He added, remembering once again that these were not his men as he had known them. 

“So, names don’t have anything to do with experience.” 3466 said. Obi-Wna would have to be careful not to call him by a name, just in case he had to explain, which he would. “You can get a name in training, or you can get a name in battle, or you can get a name anywhere. One of my squadmates, Tre, short for Trebuchet, got his name from a training accident. Barker got his name because he’s always barking out orders. It’s rumoured that Jango himself named the Commander.” 3466 stoped and flushed, clearly he did not mean to tell Obi-Wan mere rumours.

“Interesting.” Obi-Wan said. “So lacking a name has nothing to do with, forgive me if I have gotten the parlance wrong, how shiny you are?”

“No sir. I’m hardly a shiny,” these words were said with pride, and Obi-Wan thought that it was deserved. It did not do well to dwell in pride, to let it control you, but pride in your accomplishments did little harm, so long as you let it go again. “And there’s no shame in not having a name yet.”

“Certainly not.” Obi-Wan smiled. “Thank you for telling me 3466, and thank you for taking the time to sit with me a while.”

“Of course sir.” 3466 stood and saluted. He hesitated. 

“You are free to go if you’d like.” Obi-Wan said. “Thank you again for the tea.” He took another sip. It was well made, and 3466 had gotten the same type that Obi-Wan had been drinking before.

“No problem sir.” He saluted again, and then turned sharply on his heel and left, walking towards a table full of clones, with an extra space and an extra helmet. Obi-Wan wondered briefly which one of them was Trebuchet before turning back to his paperwork.

There was very little air resistance above Zarro, so little that Anakin had already dealt with it by the time Obi-Wan arrived, despite the fact that there was a very small window of time between the arrival of the Resolute’s fleet, and the arrival of the Negotiator and her fleet. 

Zarro was the only inhabited planet in the system, and it’s inhabitants did not have a standing army. From what Obi-Wan had read, they were all trained in some sort of weaponry, and could form a strong standing army, however, the population was a small one, and droids did not have to sleep. 

Zarro had been an instrumental battle later in the war, in the timeline that Obi-Wan was familiar with, but there were several other things that had already changed, and so he was less surprised than he ought to be that things had already changed. 

The planet was heavily forested, but the reason for the Separatists wanted the planet was mainly for the rumours of a clan of Force sensitives. There was nothing beyond rumours, and Obi-Wan’s vague memory of hearing the news that the planet’s forests had been razed during the rise of the Empire. 

“From what our scans of the surface show, there is a massive army on the surface.” Anakin said, the map laid out before them blending into her holographic torso. “They landed most of their base, which is probably why there was so little air support. They weren’t expecting us.”

Obi-Wan watched as Anakin’s scans showed up on the map, marking places where columns of droids had been seen, and the directions that they had been marching, as well as approximations of numbers. The aforementioned base was also marked out. 

“I have an idea.” Anakin said, as Obi-Wan studied the map, stroking his beard gently. 

“Let’s hear it.” 

“Do you remember the Battle of Petsalla?” Anakin asked, and Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow. She was pulling on her lessons, which was good, but Obi-Wan wasn’t above a little teasing.

“I know it may not seem like it to you, but I am not so old as that.” Admiral Darklighter, standing on the other side of the map, flashed a smile at him, and Obi-Wan could have sworn he heard Cody smother a laugh. There was amusement coming off of both of them in the Force. 

“Obi- _Wan_.” Anakin complained. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”

“Then what, pray tell, do you mean?”

“Do you remember learning about the Battle of Petsalla?” Obi-Wan nodded, looking over the map again. 

“I can see where you might be going with that.”

“Sirs. We don’t have the numbers to try to overwhelm them.” Rex said, his voice warped by talking both through his bucket and over holo. 

“Petsalla was won by the guerrillas, wasn’t it sirs?” Cody asked. Obi-Wan nodded. 

“They were an actual standing army using guerrilla tactics, but yes. We’re not going to be able to use the same tactics. Even if we did have troopers trained for warfare on skis, there is no snow here at this time, and starving out droids is not going to work.”

“But it is similar, the columns pushing through the forest. I’m not suggesting that we try the exact same thing, just that we try some non-conventional warfare.” Anakin said. 

“Have you had any luck contacting the Zar?”

“No. They appear to have abandoned their villages, and if they do have communication equipment, we haven’t managed to find it yet.”

“Very well.” Obi-Wan looked over the map again. “Commander, the men will be able to communicate effectively between small groups as well as with command if we split them into their squads and fireteams?”

“Yes sir.” Cody was curious, that was good. 

“Lovely.” 


	15. In Which the Troops Make Landfall and the Battle Begins

Obi-Wan stood, gathered with some troops behind a droid transport and listened to the news over the comms. Anakin was making a good headway on the base, and Obi-Wan was glad to give her another opportunity to prove herself, as that was what she seemed to want. 

“Sir,” Dolce, recently named, peered out around the transport, “I can go out there, take their fire. I’m sure I can get most of them before I die.” 

“No.” Obi-Wan said, almost before Dolce’s words had registered in his brain. “Absolutely not. You are worth more than cannon fodder, you are men, and I will not allow you to throw yourselves away like spent shell casings.” 

“Yes sir.” Dolce said, Force signature flooded with shock. Obi-Wan nodded once, and peered around the droid transport himself. There were about thirty battle droids standing still, looking around for them and occasionally chattering to themselves. 

If Obi-Wan used the droid transport as a shield, they could easily sweep them away.

“I want you to form point around me.” Obi-Wan said, gently pushing against the transport. It was a little on fire, but that was okay. They did so quietly and efficiently. “You’ll know when to fire.”

He pushed the droid transport forward, the Force coming easily to him, more easily than it ever had during this time before, and rammed it into the group of battle droids, walking forward as he went. 

It was surprisingly efficient. Droids were thrown away, and those few still standing were easily mowed down. Obi-Wan set the transport on top of the majority of them, and they were done.

Despite the fact that they couldn’t use the same tactics as the Battle of Petsalla, they had still managed to make Motti, little islands of enemy troops cut off entirely from one another. 

To their advantage was that they could move faster than the battle droids on rough terrain, and had cut off their communication network. 

As soon as they were done with their group of battle droids, they turned and ran towards the sounds of battle. 

Obi-Wan waded into the battle, blade in hand, men at his back. There were more droids here, but fewer things to use as Force weapons, only more droids. 

“Good to see you sir.” Pincer, 3466 Obi-Wan reminded himself, greeted as he deflected a bolt away from 3466’s head.

“Thank you 3466.” Obi-Wan replied. “It’s good to see you too.” Again, shock. Was it because he treated his men like men? Remembering their names and telling them that they had worth? Obi-Wan didn’t remember this from before, but before he could admit, he had been less preoccupied with the war itself and more the politics. His men had had to grow on him. 

Now he knew who was responsible, and the only thing more important than chopping his head off was spending time with people he cared about, many of whom he had never thought he would see again.

They looked down on the next group of battle droids from atop a hill.

“We’ll want to get rid of as many of these battle droids as we can before the sun rises.” Obi-Wan said. “Before we lose any element of surprise that we may still have.”

“If,” 3466 paused. 

“Go ahead.” Obi-Wan said. “What’s your idea?” This group of battle droids was not held down by any troops and was still advancing through the woods. 

“If we bring troops around to the back, we can attack them from both sides.” 3466 said. 

“Ah.” Obi-Wan looked over the hillside. “A pincer movement, that could work. We’ll have to coordinate.” 

There was a call for help as they had swept up the last of their battle droids, and they had managed to rescue a fire team from being overwhelmed by another group of battle droids. 

“Was there anybody with you?” Obi-Wan questioned the three men, and they all shook their heads. 

“We saw the commander a few minutes ago sir.” The leader said. 

“Thank you,” Obi-Wan left a pause for the man to fill in his name, but he didn’t. “What’s your name trooper?”

“Pine sir.”

“Thank you Pine.” Obi-Wan said. 

The sun was starting to peak over the horizon as they swept through the woods, searching for more droids to destroy.

The 212th started to regroup as the sun started to set again, and Anakin came blazing out of the woods, cutting down droids left, right and centre. Obi-Wan knew that this Anakin wasn’t the same Anakin who had Fallen and lead a massacre on the Jedi Temple, but Obi-Wan couldn’t knock the image out of his mind, of Jedi falling instead of battle droids.

“Sir.” Cody touched Obi-Wan’s shoulder gently. “Are you okay?”

“My apologies Cody.” Obi-Wan shook himself, trying to pull himself back into the present. Qui Gon had always reprimanded him for living too much in the possible future, for living too much in the Force, and not paying enough attention to the present. “I’m fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to say this when I posted this chapter, but due to the fact that I am a history nerd, I have pulled some concepts from actual conflicts, because that’s the only way I know battle tactics.


	16. In Which Obi-Wan Meets With The Var

Obi-Wan knew that it probably wasn’t healthy to hold Anakin and Vader separate in his head, though it was probably okay to hold Anakin of his vision and Anakin of now as separate beings, given that they had already proved themselves to be different.

It didn’t really help though. Whenever Anakin lit her lightsaber, Obi-Wan still thought of Mustafar, and of dying children. 

Obi-Wan sliced the last of the battledroids that he could see, and turned as one of the Zar, a warrior of high standing if Obi-Wan’s research was to be believed. 

“You are with the Republic?” They asked, as Obi-Wan deactivated his lightsaber. 

“Yes.” Obi-Wan said. “We are with the Republic.” 

“What do you want from us?”

“Nothing beyond what was stipulated in the call for aide that was sent out. The removal of Separatist forces from your system, and that you do not ally with them in the future.”

“We do not want an ally of that army of-“ Obi-Wan didn’t recognize the curse, but he could understand the vehemence behind it. “You are General Kenobi are you not?”

Obi-Wan nodded slowly, unsure as to where this line of questioning was going.

“The Force tells of you. I will bring to you our leader.” Then, as quickly as they had come, they vanished. 

“Sir.” Obi-Wan had managed to acquire Echo and Fives in his group at some point, and he was very glad to find that they were still alive, even though there was no reason that they wouldn’t be. “There’s another group of clankers.” Fives pointed, and Obi-Wan nodded. 

“We’d best go and get rid of them.” He said, smiling, a little wearily at his men. 

The Var did not return until nightfall, when they had managed to set up little camps off of the roads that the droids had created. 

It was a small party, the warrior from before, and another, as well as promised leader. Obi-Wan met them at the edge of the camp. 

“You are General Kenobi?” The leader asked, and Obi-Wan nodded. “Good. Good. I am Nie, and these are my sister-children, Dol and Ris.”

“A pleasure to meet you.” Obi-Wan said. 

“The Force tells of your coming.” Nie said. The Var made no attempts to distinguish between gender in their armour, much like the Mandalorians, and so Obi-Wan was going to be polite and use they for all of them. “The Force tells of a great warrior who has seen into the future and knows what is coming, knows of the darkness.”

“I.” Obi-Wan faltered, unsure as to how to respond to being called a great warrior. “I am no greater than any other.” He said after a moment. Nie laughed, low and raspy. 

“I forgot that you are a Jedi.” They said. “These are not my words, they are the words of the Force, and the Force chose you. It is clear to anyone who cares to find it. The Var will be a great ally to you in your quest, but only when you embark on it in truth.”

“Ensuring that my men are free to chose for themselves in an important part of that quest.” Obi-Wan said lowly. “They are as much my duty as the Republic is, and if I show my hand too soon, there will be no hope for any of us.”

“You speak the truth.” Nie said, nodding. “You care for your people. If you are ever in need of aid, call us and we will come.” Nie stepped forward and pressed a comm into Obi-Wan’s hand, before they turned and vanished into the woods. 

Obi-Wan slipped the comm into a pouch on his belt, and turned around, running a hand through his hair. 

“Sir.” A young, and very nervous feeling trooper stepped towards him, and then hesitated. 

“Good evening.” Obi-Wan smiled at the trooper, hoping to make him a little less nervous. “What’s your name?”

“Silver, sir.” Obi-Wan had got the impression that this trooper was relatively shiny, or at the very least, a very anxious person. 

“Was there something you needed Silver?” Obi-Wan asked kindly. 

“Just a question sir.”

“Of course.” 

“When you sent out the briefing, about gender, did you. Are we.” Silver faltered. Obi-Wan was never one to want to read thoughts, but Silver was broadcasting ‘I think I’m non-binary, but I don’t know if that’s okay’ very strongly into the Force.

“You are allowed to identify and express yourself as something other than male, if you so desire,” Obi-Wan said, “and if there is anyway I can help you in that, just, please, let me know.” Silver’s feeling of relief was so big, and Obi-Wan was glad to alleviate at least some of their worry. 

“Oh. Okay. Thank you sir.” Silver saluted, and Obi-Wan saluted back, before heading further into camp. 

The campaign took far shorter than expected, though Obi-Wan still got very little sleep. They were there for all of five days before the planet was clear of working droids. Each night they found that they had lost men, but far fewer than the numbers that Obi-Wan was used to. The highest number of fatalities they had was three in a day, and that was between both the 212th and the 501st. It was such a relief to have lost so few, that even though he knew the numbers before they were given, Obi-Wan almost cried.

“This feels like it’s going almost too well.” Anakin said, as they got off of their call with the Council. They were being ordered onwards, to different planets. “I don’t think we should leave.”

“We will defend ourselves.” The Var that Obi-Wan had met several days previous had made themselves present for the Council meeting. “We could have done so this time as well, to greater loss of our people than you have had, but the Force, as we said to your Council, said that we must speak with you, and so we have.”

That night, before they left, Obi-Wan and Anakin sequestered themselves away, ostensibly to get some sleep, and left the men to their mourning. It was a quiet affair, more so than it was in Obi-Wan’s past, in what might be their future, the lack of drums apparent, but as they finished their remembrances, an act that Obi-Wan did with them under the guise of meditation in the command tent he shared with Anakin, they started to sing. 

_“Obi-Wan.”_ Anakin whispered mentally, their bond still only open a crack. _“Listen.”_

And they did. They listened, and they remembered, Anakin whispering the names of the fallen troops through their bond. 


End file.
